Delicacies from the Blue Deep for the Sophisticated Epicure.
Sea Fare of the Aegean
1941–c. 1984
Seafood
A Happiness Wish [from a 1976 Sea Fare menu]:
Life has many happinesses
Eating is the prime essential
Then Art—Works of beauty—nourishes the spirit,
And warm friendship in ease and comfort, fosters togetherness.
It is our happiness to serve you all these.
Alternate Names:
Sea-Fare of the Aegean (upon 56th Street becoming the sole location, c. 1967)
Sea-Fare
Sea Fare Restaurant
Ownership:
Gus Gounaris, Nicholas Tsigakos, and Joseph Milukas (c. 1982–1984)
Christos G. Bastis (1941–c. 1982)
Executive Chef:
Gus Hallas (1949)
Location:
25 West 56th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues (1963–c. 1984)*
1033 1st Avenue at 57th Street, Sutton Place (April 10, 1944–c. 1965) [enlarged c. 1950]
44-46 West 8th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues (1957–c. 1967) [built for purpose]
41 West 8th Street (1941–1957)
Literature:
Mimi Sheraton, Eating My Words: An Appetite for Life (2004).
Publications:
Grimes, William. “Christos Bastis, Mediterranean Restaurateur, Dies at 95.” New York Times, May 23, 1999.
“At a time when the typical American seafood restaurant was a lobster shanty decorated with nets and cork, Mr. Bastis saw an opportunity to serve traditional Mediterranean seafood dishes in elegant surroundings and to broaden the taste of his customers by presenting them with new kinds of fish.”
Sheraton, Mimi. “Restaurants: American Cooking and Classic Seafood.” New York Times, September 24, 1982: C18. [Sheraton gives Sea Fare one star. She also indicates the restaurant opened “47 years ago,” which would put the opening date at 1935 and is at odds with other sources. Likely this was a typo for “41.”]
Britchky, Seymour. “The Great Fish Houses: How Are the Old-Line Places Holding Up?” New York, 14, 37 (September 28, 1981): 52-53.
“This restaurant requires that men wear jackets, but if you arrive without one, you are provided with a limp, much-worn, pale-gray linen number, compared with which your basic animated polo shirt is full dress.”
Sheraton, Mimi. “Restaurants: The Best Seafood the City Offers.” New York Times, December 10, 1976: 68. [Sheraton gives Sea Fare three stars.]
Sokolov, Raymond A. “When Freshness Counts the Most: Seafood Guide.” New York Times, May 11, 1972: 52.
Callvert, R. S. “Restaurants: New York, San Francisco.” Town & Country 123, 4561 (August 1969): 96.
“Restaurant Gets Space on 57th St.: Sea Fare to Have Unit in Former Thorp [sic] Building.” New York Times, August 20, 1962: B37.
“Restaurant Chain Plans 55th St. Unit: Sea-Fare Takes West Side Plot.” New York Herald Tribune, September 6, 1958: A8.
“Sea Fare Restaurant Adds to 8th St. Holding.” New York Herald Tribune, January 23, 1953: 20.
Paddleford, Clementine. “Today’s Living: Spring is Served for April Menus.” New York Herald Tribune, April 26, 1951: 20.
“Toss the spring greens with a new salad dressing, a thin mayonnaise, tinted shell pink, made with imported olive oil blended with soya oil, vinegar for sharpness and a bold thrust of lemon. Fresh egg yolk’s the thickener; mustard in the mix and considerable garlic. This is the specialty of the Sea Fare Restaurant kitchen where it sells at the cash desk…”
Nickerson, Jane. “Shellfish for R-Less Months.” New York Times Magazine, July 9, 1950: 15. [Includes a recipe for Sea Fare’s lobster thermidor.]
Casa-Emellos, Ruth P. “Making the Most of Oysters.” New York Times Magazine, November 27, 1947: 46. [Includes a recipes for Sea Fare’s oysters sauce Bearnaise.]
Nickerson, Jane. “News of Food: Seafood Restaurant on the East Side Is Famed Also for Sculptured Reliefs.” New York Times, March 14, 1946: 22. [Records Sea Fare’s opening date as 1940.]
“Nothing is served besides fish except French fried potatoes and mixed green salad, with coffee and pies, cheese, fruit and ice cream for dessert.”
Dana, Robert W. “Dining and Dancing.” New York Herald Tribune, July 5, 1944: 13A.
Notable Guests:
Frank Sinatra (Singer)
Notes:
The first restaurant job owner Chris Bastis took in New York was at Cadillac, a French restaurant; he lasted only long enough to hear the orders of his first customers—in French. Having pretended to write down the orders, Bastis “lifted their menus from their hands, pocketed my pencil and walked into the kitchen and out the back door… I never went back and I’ve often wondered what they ate that night and how long it took them to get it.” (1) Bastis’s restaurant career prospects improved from there, and he eventually opened two restaurants in the 1930s, Fougmar (43rd Street and 3rd Avenue) and Riviera (58th Street and 6th Avenue), before opening Sea Fare in 1941. (2)
A series of unfortunate events sent Bastis back to Greece between 1937 and 1941, but in these four years the foundations for Sea Fare were laid. In Greek’s museums, Bastis developed his passion for ancient sculpture, which would one day form the basis of Sea Fare’s decor. And in the restaurants along the coast Bastis studied seafood recipes and other culinary traditions that he might export to New York. Finally, Sea Fare’s fate was sealed by 300 barrels of imported olives: Bastis “reaped a windfall” when war between Italy and Greece caused a sudden rise in the price of olives; Sea Fare Restaurant was the result of the profits. (3)
Bastis was known for his collection of antiquities, some of which are now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Kushite Pharoah and a late 4th century BCE terracotta head of a woman) and the Benaki Museum in Athens (white marble Cycladic figurine). The Met held an exhibition in 1987 of “Antiquities from the Christos G. Bastis Collection,” and following Bastis’s death much of his collection was sold at Sotheby’s on December 9, 1999. Bastis also commissioned pieces for Sea Fare in the tradition of ancient pottery and sculpture, such as this vase which appeared in an online estate sale, lot 124.
The New York Public Library Digital Collections feature a number of photographs of the restaurant from 1976, including this photo of the front awning of Sea Fare of the Aegean on 56th Street and several photos of Bastis like this one.
James Spader worked at the restaurant as a busboy at the suggestion of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, the mother of his school friend John Kennedy, Jr. In an appearance on The Tonight Show, Spader tells Jimmy Fallon how his job came to a sudden halt after dumping an entire tray of bread and water on a table of nine ladies. [Clips of the show available with transcription at archive.org.] (4)
For the Sutton Place restaurant, Bastis commissioned eight sculptors to create 38 pieces as decoration and also purchased a 175-year-old Connecticut barn in order to make use of the wood. The overall effect was to “give a touch of the old to provide a strange contrast with the white sculpture, the deep blue ceiling, an arrangement of mosaic tiles and a glass-inclosed [sic] fountain which drip[ped] slowly over water plants.” (5)
In 1958 Bastis purchased several buildings at 63-67 West 55th Street with the intention to demolish them and build a one-story restaurant. (6) It seems these plans did not materialize. The buildings were certainly demolished and replaced with a new 13-story apartment building in 1962, but Sea Fare never had a location on this site and no other restaurants owned by Bastis at the time have appeared in the records.
Sea Fare’s final owners, headed by Gus Gounaris, went on to open Pisces, a restaurant at 60 East 54th Street which existed c. 1988-1991.
The restaurant site at 25 West 56th Street is now home to Bread & Butter Bakery & Cafe.
Related Restaurants:
The Coach House (According to William Grimes, Coach House owner Leon Lianides first made his name at Sea Fare.) (7)
Menu:
Lunch, January 9, 1976 (Culinary Institute of America)
Wine menu, 1963 (New York Public Library)
Recipes:
*According to the New York Times, Sea Fare seems to have originally leased the ground floor, mezzanine, and basement of the Jay Thorpe Building at 24 West 57th Street. At the time the building was undergoing an extensive renovation project which involved connecting it to the “abutting ten-story” building at 25 West 56th Street. (8) It seems in the end Sea Fare chose to occupy the 56th Street portion of the newly-combined building instead.
(1) Grimes, 1999.
(2) ibid.
(3) ibid.
(4) The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Episode 219 (James Spader, Margot Robbie), February 26, 2015.
(5) Dana, 1944: 13A.
(6) New York Herald Tribune, 1958.
(7) Grimes, William. Appetite City: A Culinary History of New York. New York: North Point Press, 2009: 311.
(8) New York Times, 1962.
Cover photo: “Sea-Fare of the Aegean, Menu.” (1976). Bruce P. Jeffer Menu Collection. The Culinary Institute of America, Conrad N. Hilton Library, Archives and Special Collections (Digital Collections). Accessed March 25, 2025.
The New York City Restaurant Archive 